Blue Ridge School educators have big dreams for resurrected garden

Published 3:46 pm Monday, October 19, 2020

Blue Ridge School educators are revitalizing a garden on campus that had fallen into disrepair, and anyone in the community interested in helping with the effort can do so on Saturday during a community “work day.”

In addition to those at Blue Ridge School, Dalton Public Schools maintenance department staff have played a major role in resurrecting the garden, as have volunteers from Rock Bridge Community Church, a partner of the school this year, said Principal Christine Long. Volunteers are invited to mulch, weed and perform other gardening tasks on Saturday from 8 to 11 a.m.

The garden took root a decade ago, but had deteriorated until Courtney Taylor, media specialist at Blue Ridge, approached Long earlier this year with the idea of resuscitating it. Long was quickly convinced, at least in part because every time Taylor asked for Long’s blessing last year, those projects blossomed.

“Last year was my first as principal here, and Courtney came to me with a lot of ideas,” said Long. “I don’t think I said ‘No’ to any of them, and (among her accomplishments), she has made the media center into so much more than just a library.”

Long learned Taylor and her husband had cultivated a flourishing garden at their home during the early months of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, so she had confidence Taylor could use that knowledge at Blue Ridge.

“I saw them on social media,” Long said with a chuckle. “I thought ‘Oh, they are the cutest little farmers.'”

Taylor acknowledged she “got a little green thumb during the shutdown.”

“My husband and I were both home, so we got into gardening,” she said. “I thought I could bring some of what I learned to the school.”

“I remember, as a first-grade teacher, taking my kids out to the garden a lot, but it had kind of gotten neglected,” Taylor said. “The bones of it are great, (so) we just had to clean it.”

“We had the foundation out there already,” Long said. “We just had to clean it up, and (for that) we had to get boots on the ground.”

A couple of those “boots” belong to Pam Williams, who teaches gifted math at the school.

“We worked so hard on the garden, and the weeds were horrendous, but I love working outside,” Williams said. “It’s come a long way.”

There was “a lot of weeding, because there was lots of overgrown stuff,” Taylor said. “Some of the bushes were really pretty, but then I did the research, and they were just weeds, so this has been a learning experience for me.”

Topsoil needs to be spread to ready the garden for planting, “we need to get the raised beds more accessible and usable, and the greenhouse needs some attention,” Williams said. “The more help (we get), the more we can do out there.”

The garden can be a source of numerous lessons for students, from math to business to science, Long said. Students can grow produce and observe the process, and the school could operate its own farmers market, selling produce to the community.

Classes could even compete to see who can grow the largest cabbage, pumpkin or tomato, Long said.

“We love to have that competitive spirit here,” she said.

Long also hopes to one day serve produce from the garden in Blue Ridge’s cafeteria, she said.

“I think you can make anything an educational opportunity for students, and we dream big around here,” she said.